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Upcoming Events

The Dartmouth Centers Forum as a group, and its members individually, present events throughout the academic year in support of the current theme. To review events the DCF and its member organizations have already sponsored in support of the theme see the past events page.

Programming Sponsored by DCF Members

In addition to programming funded through our RFP and DCF-led programming, the DCF's member centers also plan programming focused on the current theme. Some events follow. Information on upcoming events will be made available here, as new programs are finalized. Please check back often to learn about newly scheduled events related to the theme, Pop Culture: What puts the 'pop' in popular culture?

Inequality for All

Film screening and discussion - Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Silsby Hall Room 28

4:00 film screening; 6:00 discussion

INEQUALITY FOR ALL follows Robert Reich '68 - professor, best-selling author, Rhodes Scholar, former trustee and Clinton cabinet member- as he demonstrates how the widening income gap has impacted the American economy. The Film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film festival.

CINEASTAS by MARIANO PENSOTTI

The hopes, fears and secrets of four Buenos Aires filmmakers—young and old, struggling and successful—are revealed in this thrilling and utterly original work by one of Latin America’s brightest theater talents. On an ingenious “split screen” set, virtuosic actors switch rapid-fire between the filmmakers’ lives and the “films” they are making, intertwining stories of love, loss, joy and despair.

Going Local: Desegregating Dartmouth's Fraternities

Rauner Special Collections Reading Room

January 15-February 28

In March 1954 something rather extraordinary happened at Dartmouth. The undergraduate council, led by College senior and future Dartmouth President David McLaughlin, put before the entire student body a referendum designed to end discrimination in the fraternities. 86.5% of the student body voted, and the measure passed by a thin majority of just four votes. The student-led mandate required that fraternity rules could no longer be used to blackball prospective pledges based on race, religion or nation origin.

A small exhibit in Rauner Library shows key documents from this event that created the local fraternity system we have today.

Winter Term Writing Seminars on Popular Culture:

Dartmouth College: In Fact and In Fiction

Taught by James Dobson in the 9L

Dartmouth College, as both a setting and object of analysis, has appeared in numerous cultural objects as alumni, students, and those looking in from the outside have reflected on the intellectual and social life of the College. In this writing-intensive course we will examine the range of representations of Dartmouth in a variety of prose sources including memoirs, novels, and essays. We will write our own analyses of these texts before conducting historical research in Rauner, Dartmouth's special collections library. Along the way, we’ll learn something about the history of our institution, differences between various student experiences, and debates over the past and future of Dartmouth College. Four major essays will offer the opportunity to analyze existing arguments and textual representations while practicing our own analytical writing. Each paper will be organized around specific strategies. We will be building on previously acquired abilities as we move toward our final paper. As revision is critical to becoming better writers, we will write multiple drafts of all major papers. Group workshops and individual conferences will be organized around the revision process.

Humor and Identity: What’s Funny about Identity?

Taught by Jonna Mackin in the 2A

This course investigates identity by reading stories about people who seek to know who they are and how they are connected to community. We also take an in-depth look at comedy. Why are sad tales often so funny? Why does humor so often involve forbidden or painful experiences? Is there a relationship between who we identify with and what we think is funny? Class discussion provides the forum for answering such complex questions. Short readings in identity theory and comic theory will provide tools to analyze our texts. Starting with a look at stand-up comedy, we’ll discuss plays and poetry where identity is a serious theme treated comically. Student groups will construct a web page on the hip hop poet Saul Williams using Canvas. This project introduces accessing library resources for academic research while familiarizing students with multi-media composition. Our final project is a novel by Native American and Dartmouth graduate Louise Erdrich. This rich text will be the culmination of the term’s work on themes on humor and identity. Through journals, class discussions, writing and re-writing short papers (each paper is written twice), weekly workshops, and through professorial and peer review, students will learn to read and think critically, craft a college-level thesis, and develop an argument paper.

What does it mean to live in a technologically advanced society? How do science, technology, and society connect in meaningful ways? Can ordinary citizens help shape the regulatory debate on rapidly expanding technological progress? Does our media perspective foster intellectual debate rather than help promulgate irrational fear? How may writers effectually approach the task of ethically addressing the elusive effects of emerging technologies? This course surveys the emerging technology landscape with an introduction to scholarly voices that have addressed technological changes in their societies. We will learn how to write effectually and persuasively about the contested technological issues of our day through engagement of historical readings and media from scholars whose works reveal understanding of how their respective cultures and societies were adjusting to rapid technological advances. Through class discussions and careful reading of select texts, we will engage the critical thinking process to convey meaningful results of our research discourse. We will actively create, compose, edit, review, and revise our intellectual contributions to an ongoing scholarly conversation on emerging technology topics in big data, bioengineering, digital economies, knowledge discovery, nanotechnologies, and posthumanism. Our discussions will be enhanced with media presentations on select essays, while our goal will be to grow in emerging technology literacy through opportunity to read, discuss, synthesize, and respond to course texts and media in an engaging, intellectual writing style. Assignments will focus on articulation of arguments and claims found in readings, related research, and personal application. Insights and methods gained from our interaction will be applicable towards future academic research.